multi recorder diode

[dark racer]

backstory
ok so recently i posted some questions about my homemade mini laser engraver. (it worked awesomely btw)

but it was too small for my taste so i wanted to put the laser on my 3d printer and see how it performed.
well i broke a wire on the laser driver so i had to solder that. (i forgot to disconnect the laser) so now the diode is dead.

ok so the question.
i could not find another dvd rw to steal the diode from. so i only have weak ir diodes now.

but i did also have a multi recorder drive.
it has this diffrent diode in it

the pins were labled. DVD, GROUND, CD
does this mean that this will produce 2 diffrent kinds of laser? so basicly an ir laser and a red laser in one?
and if so. i assume that means you can choose wich laser depending on wich pin you supply power to right?

does this also mean that if i supply power to both dvd and cd at the same time that it will produce both lasers at the same time? (so i would get a higher output. but with some invisible ir light in the mix)
would this not help with laser output at all?
or would this destroy the diode instantly?




according to this site. http://elabz.com/laser-diode-power-output-based-on-dvd-rrw-specs/ it's a 300mw laser (16x)



edit: ok so it's wired up. (only dvd and ground) and functioning. but i have run into a little snag.
i have been using one of those 10 for a dollar 5mw focusable dot modules for my previous diode.
i simply removed the 5mw diode and put the stronger dvd diode in that.

with the previous diode wich was a TO-18 5.6mm diode. i could focus the dot verry close to the lens.
wich is great inside that small engraver.
but with this new diode my focal distance. (or atleast the distance the dot focuses at is about 40cm away from the module).
i can't get it any closer. the lens bit is only engaged by a single screw thread as it is so i can't focus it even closer.

how can there be such a drastic diffrence?. it's not like this diode is alot deeper then the other one was either. what would happen if i flip the lens around 180 degree's so the outside is facing inside and vise versa.

 

[dark racer]

ok. i ended up grabbing another colemating lens and adding it in curved side up. now the focal point is about 20mm away from the laser. this is much easyer to workk with

 

[paul1598419]

What exactly did you do to blow the first diode? Sounds like you were soldering on a hot circuit. You know not to do that, Right?

 

[dark racer]

well the verry first diode i blew by accidentilly shorting out a cap when i was using a multimeter.

second one i only thought i destroyed with soldering. but apparantly i mishandled a wire and broke it. wich again shorted something out when i fired it up.

this last laser diode also died. this time because i was asking too much of a 10 ohm resistor wich heated up to the point of desoldering the adjust pin on the lm317. (yes it was right up against the pin. had to work with limited space at first)
it didn't heat up this much with the weaker diodes.

now when trying to fix that last problem i broke off one of the legs of the lm317. (it's not my day)
i have one more diode to destroy before i go buy a 300 or 500mw 15 dollar laser module with a premade laser driver.
then again. if i had made a propper pcb instead of mcguyverig all the components for the driver together without a pcb. then i might have still been on my first diode.

(i have already ordered a 1.6w laser module btw. but that's intended for on the bigger 3d printer)
so i do need something to put back into this tiny laser engraver i have


edit. ok. such a tiny fault and the diode is basicly dead.

 

[paul1598419]

LM317 based drivers are limited to the power you can get out of a laser diode. Yeah, they are cheap, but I wouldn't try to get 1000 mA out of it. They need heat sinking for much lower currents than that. The are also linear drivers, so not the first choice for driving diodes with a low Vf if using a much higher input voltage.

 

[dark racer]

yeah i don't know what laser driver to get or where to get it. i live in a country where laserpointers are about as illegal as a gun. (netherlands)
so other then 5mw lasers or disco lightshow equipment. i can't get anything related to lasers.
so anything i can order will be atleast 2 weeks shipping. that's why i have been buiding my own stuff.

i also havent put reverse polarity protection in my drivers.

anyway the original question still stands.
it seems to be a rare diode or i don't know what to google for.
but this one actually used all 3 pins.

i only used the ground and dvd pin. but it also had a cd pin wich was also connected to the circuitboard of the dvd drive.
(this one https://www.amazon.com/Samsung-TS-H653-DVD±RW-SATA-Burner/dp/B003DQYIZG )

if i would have applied dc+ to the dvd and the cd pin. and ofcourse ground to ground. would it have red AND infrared laserlight at the same time?

and i'm not trying to push anything that crazy. these dvd burner diodes don't go over 300mw. 400mw maybe if you have a 24x speed dual layer.
mine was a 16x so it was only 300mw.
and i do have a heatsink on the lm317.

but what driver would you recommend for a 300-500mw laser diode. (even an instructable to a better homemade one would be nice. but storebought seems better) and does the wavelenght matter? i see the chinese sellers ad wavelenghts to the title

 

[paul1598419]

I don't know exactly which diode this is, but it does not have two lasers in it. If it has another device in it, it is likely a photo-diode. As far as I know there aren't any available yet. Have you tried the black buck drivers sold by x-wosse on eBay? They come from Russia, so you might not have to wait that long to get one. They are more efficient than anything you can build and can be set, depending on which one you get, to as much as 6000 mA or more. I know he has at least one that can be set to a very low current too. I think he also has at least one boost driver too. Those can be used with only one Li-ion battery for diodes with a high forward voltage.

 

[dark racer]

i cannot find him on ebay. (searched by seller name and regular) (when ever i find russia warehouses on bangood btw they never ship to the netherlands)

they do make diodes like this but in a diffrent form factor https://www.eenewsembedded.com/news...d-and-infrared-laser-diodes-scanning-counting

so i guess i answered my question. yes it does have 2 wavelenghts that you can choose between by choosing what pin to supply power to.
(it also explains why there was only 1 laser diode in that drive.)
i still don't know if i could have used both wavelenghts at the same time.
and yes it was a rare gem that i now regret destroying(it's really eating at my soul). i should have set it aside and see if there was any intrest in it, or atleast not subject it to such a horrible laser driver.
and it's not a sepperate device. it's like it is in the pictures in my OP 3 strips next to eachother wich is the actual part that the lasing arc is generated on.

middle is ground.
left side is dvd and right side is cd. (cd lasers are much weaker infrared lasers. max 80mw)

i keep finding an image that looks exactly like it but it then points me to a seller that has a couple pictures beside it of a 2 pin laser (there are only 2 of those 3 wires you see in my OP picture)
so i doubt he's the right guy.
sells the diode for 2 or 3 bucks. if that's all it was worth then i don't mind. that means there are thousands of them.

 

[paul1598419]

Cool! This is the first one of these I have seen. Sharp has been talking about an RGB laser chip, but it hasn't been released yet.

These drivers are available from many different sellers, but I can't say who will ship to you. If you can receive stuff from the USA., you might want to look at DTR. He has several drivers that would work in this case.

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